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7/14/06 - Friday Inside LA TV - what the red logo means on KCBS/KCAL. Why Bob McCormick is done at KTLA. Check out Recent Issues 7-11-06 Tuesday's OTR 7-07-06 Friday's OTR          Send your opinions to BRUIN74@aol.com.

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KAREN CARLSON SUES ABC AND NEWS DIRECTOR CHERYL FAIR, CLAIMS  "I COULD HAVE DIED LAST WEEK."  

CARLSON ALSO CLAIMS FAIR "CHASED ME THROUGH THE NEWSROOM AS I WAS CRYING."

Karen Carlson - in a letter to GM Arnie Kleiner - "I no longer feel safe working in the KABC-TV newsroom as long as Cheryl Fair is the news director."

The blow-up between Karen Carlson and her boss and the circumstances behind it, have resulted in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.  This was a story that OTR broke in May.  Some of the key questions raised by this lawsuit are: Did Carlson resign or was she fired? Did news director Cheryl Fair hurt Carlson, and do so intentionally by allegedly grabbing her wrist after an allegedly heated discussion?  Did Carlson suffer from carbon monoxide exposure because of working inside a KABC news van?  Was Carlson punished for complaining that all KABC news vans do not have a proper carbon monoxide diversion and monitoring system?  Could this lawsuit have been avoided if KABC had simply paid off the remainder of Carlson's annual salary of 135 thousand dollars?  With her contract up in October, that would have cost KABC a little under 60 thousand dollars.

As you can see, Carlson is claiming breach of contract, wrongful termination, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and assault and battery. Keep in mind, this is all from Carlson's lawsuit. I did email Fair in the hopes of being directed to an ABC lawyer I could talk with. So far, no response.

PROBLEM BEGAN IN LIVE VAN

On May 11th, Carlson was "rushed to the hospital emergency room," where she was  "diagnosed with having been exposed to high levels of carbon monoxide and instructed to take time off to rest and recover." Though in a memo that Carlson sent to Fair and several others after the incident but while still employed by KABC, she said "Though I didn't have carbon monoxide poisoning, it was enough for hospitalization, an oxygen tube through my nose for two hours, and a shot to control the vomiting."  She also said her blood pressure was high.  Her memo also said she had suffered headaches once or twice a week for nearly three years because of the KABC live vans.

She also complained in that memo that the van "smelled like it always does."

(Though I know auto exhaust can smell sickening, it should also be mentioned that carbon monoxide is odorless. What I don't know is whether there is a proportional increase of carbon monoxide with the amount of exhaust we can smell).

Carlson sent two letter to General Manger Arnie Kleiner after Fair accepted her resignation, which Carlson denies having offered. (More on that later). In one of them, she said she was "bruised a week later from where blood was taken from my wrist to test for carbon monoxide exposure."

The lawsuit also says that live vans have both an engine and a gasoline generator which are kept running while reporters and photographers are in the van working.  In her memo, Carlson says that the exhaust pipes are placed in places where the exhaust is likely to seep into the vans through the doors which she says "must remain open in many cases to set up the liveshot."  She also says the CO monitors are not in the best place to measure it.

The lawsuit continues "In order to avoid the build-up of carbon monoxide in the trucks from these two engines, it is the custom and practice in the industry to attach a carbon monoxide diversion system."  That practice, which it says is done in KCBS vans for example, is "A hose which is attached to the exhaust pipes in order to carry the exhaust down-wind from the working environment. Unfortunately, while ABC was aware of this custom and practice, and apparently owned the equipment necessary to render the trucks safe to work in, ABC failed to equip its live trucks with the carbon monoxide diversion systems."

In another letter to Kleiner, Carlson said that Fair told her that the station had the needed carbon monoxide diversion equipment, but that it was up to the photographers to take the tubes to the live vans, and that "we still don't know why you got sick last week."

Carlson also said in her memo to Fair "As you can imagine, going to the emergency room, being poked and prodded, vomiting and hyperventilating because of the pain was very traumatic for me. I’ll be ready to get back in the field as soon as these two simple safety measures are put into place."

THE MEETING AND THE BLOW UP

During a meeting in Fair's office on May 17th, following Carlson's memo,  Carlson says she was willing to continue working in the field, but simply refused to spend time in the live vans. She says until the system was fixed, she wanted a separate car to drive or to be reimbursed if she drove her own car. Carlson says that Fair told her "You are not allowed to reassign yourself."

With no agreement, and Fair allegedly getting upset, Carlson decided to leave the meeting.  In one of her letters to Kleiner, she says Fair then followed her and said "You get back here in this office right now!"  Carlson says she replied "No." Carlson says Fair followed her to her desk, "angrily, but quietly, yelling at me to get back into her office. I told her the conversation was over and sat at my desk. She proceeded to sit on my desk, point at me in the face, and tell me to get back into her office, 'right now!' "  

 Carlson says she began to cry.  "As I got my keys in tears and tried to leave, Ms. Fair grabbed my arm, which was currently covered in bruises from my carbon monoxide exposure the week before. It hurt, I said "Let go of me! Get away from me!" Then I cried even harder, telling her that I could have died last week, and she didn't seem to care.  I left the newsroom shaking, crying and scared for my personal safety. I kept looking over my shoulder, afraid she would chase after me and hurt me again."

You will recall that according to my sources, who say they spoke with witnesses,  this is where Carlson dropped the F-bomb on Fair. As you can see, there is no admission of profanity in Carlson's version of events. 

QUIT OR FIRED?

Karen Carlson - May 18th letter to GM Arnie Kleiner - "It has come to my attention that someone has trespassed on my personal property to deliver the attached letter."

Later that day after the confrontation, the lawsuit says Carlson  left a voice mail message for Fair suggesting they should "discuss a  resolution of the balance of plaintiff’s contract."  Fair called back and said she would accept Carlson's resignation and that it should be signed and faxed by end of business day.   But the suit says  "However at no time did plaintiff ever agree to resign, nor did she ever write, sign or fax a letter of resignation."

The next day, a letter which you see above, was delivered at Carlon's home which says  "This letter serves to confirm that in a phone message to me on May 17, 2006 at 1pm you called to suggest we go our separate ways and offered 'to give notice.'  Later that afternoon I called you and accepted your offer to resign. Therefore, yesterday was your final date of service with KABC.

We are sending you a final check for payment through yesterday and any earned but unused vacation owed."

In one of  her letters to Kleiner, both of which came after Fair's letter to Carlson,  Carlson said "I will not be pushed out of employment because my manager disagreed with me, then proceeded to chase me through the newsroom as I was crying and trying to get away from a dangerous situation.

I never agreed to resign. This is clearly retaliation for my filing a complaint about the noxious gasses emitting from the station livetrucks, and my subsequent hospitalization thereof."

Carlson also says she said in her message to Fair that "perhaps we should come to some settlement on my contract and go our separate ways."

SO....

The lawsuit claims Carlson was fired "for having objected to the unsafe working conditions to which she had been subjected," and that Fair was responsible for "humiliating plaintiff in front of plaintiff’s coworkers."

Medically, it claims "Plaintiff  was required to and did employ physicians and surgeons to examine, treat, and care for plaintiff and incurred additional medical expenses." And the suit anticipates more expenses in the future.

 Interestingly, in Carlson's memo to Fair, which led to their May 17th meeting, she said she was ready to go back to work. But the suit says "By reason of the acts alleged above, plaintiff was prevented from attending to plaintiff’s usual profession as a reporter and television anchor and thereby lost earnings."  It also says she won’t be able to work for an unknown time period in the future.

The suit is not asking for any specific amount of money, though it is asking for compensatory and  punitive damages.

Once again, any witnesses to the incident described above are invited to contact me. I will certainly protect your identity. 

And as this OTR issue gets passed around LA newsrooms, which I expect will happen, it would be nice if those of you are are getting this paid site for free would might consider subscribing.

PROMOTION VS SHILLING  

On the left (photo courtesy of www.laradio.com) you have radio people from KBIG and KOST surrounding someone from Disney to promote the new Pirates of the Caribbean Movie. On the right you have a reporter in the form of KTTV's Bob DeCastro who looks like he works for Disney!

I know that LA TV loves to cover and promote movies. Fine. But when a reporter dresses up like he's some fan, or working for Disney, that is a real credibility problem. It becomes even more questionable when you realize that Good Day LA, for whom DeCastro was doing the story, just happened to be doing a Disneyland Giveaway!

I realize that Good Day LA, is not a newscast, BUT within their show they do news. And DeCastro is a reporter who works for the news department.  There are some lines that reporters should not cross. I believe DeCastro crossed one big time. And I had to wonder if his dressing up was a connected to the giveaway.

I sent Bob an email to to let him know that I thought he made a mistake and wondered if there was a connection.  He writes:

I HOPE THIS GOES WITHOUT SAYING...

Reporters or anyone else covered in this column are always welcome to respond.

READERS PICK SANCHEZ AS WORST ANCHOR IN LA

I must say that when readers gave Mia Lee a GPA of 1.02, I figured she had a great shot at last place.  I guess I should not have underestimated your disrespect for Lauren Sanchez.  A  point-6 GPA is the lowest we've seen here. Last year's lowest, Jennifer Gould, had a .92.  But .6? That is a full blown F.   And I should add that one reader who gave Sanchez an "A" noted that it was "for the boobs."    This was Maria Quiban's first time in the GPA competition, and unfortunately for her, she landed in the bottom five.  However, there is obviously a wide gulf between her and Sanchez.  As you can see, Rick Garcia moved up a bit, and Michael Brownlee dropped a hair.

2006 FIVE HIGHEST GRADED ANCHORS   

1) Marc Brown (KABC) - 3.69       (Last Year #1)      

2) John Beard  (KTTV) - 3.43         (Last Year #4 tie)

3) Pat Harvey  (KCAL) - 3.4           (Last Year #3)

3) Colleen Williams (KNBC) - 3.4  (Last Year #2)

5) Michelle Tuzee (KABC) - 3.12   (Last Year #4 tie)

2006 FIVE LOWEST GRADED ANCHORS

1) Lauren Sanchez (KCOP) - .6     (Last Year #2)

2) Mia Lee (KCAL) - 1.02             (Last Year #5)

3) Cher Calvin (KTLA) -  1.44       (Last Year #3)

4) Maria Quiban (KCOP) - 1.51

5) Micah Ohlman (KABC) - 1.55   (Last Year #4)

Congratulations to Marc Brown for being given the highest GPA two years in a row. If I were just getting into the business, and I wanted to anchor the news, I would take a good look at all the above, and figure out why readers find certain anchors so good and trustworthy, and others not.  NO, I do not suggest anyone ever copy another person's particular style.  But I am suggesting that you take note of who is successful and consider what their strengths are which make them so popular.  I think you'll find that all of the popular anchors have the ability to be natural and credible on camera. And if you look at the bottom five, you could probably figure out some pitfalls to avoid.

OF COURSE NO ONE IS PERFECT

I also think Marc Brown is a very solid anchor, but I have noticed that he's had an ongoing problem of clearing his throat or coughing on the air while his co-anchor is reading. It's not constant of course, but it's happened enough to where I've noticed. In fact, I've put together a little medley of Brown's throat-clearing.  And so the following comes with the assumption that this is not a serious health issue.

Hey, if you're going to be #1, you have to put up with a little roasting, don't you?

CLICK HERE TO WATCH

Okay, you're right. The last one didn't belong to Brown. That came from comedian Guy Marks during an appearance on the Dick Van Dyke show.  And when you compare that to Brown, well, Marc isn't doing so bad after all.

WHAT IS PAT HARVEY SAYING?

I guess it wasn't so hard to understand after all. To me it sounded like Harvey was teasing a story about those "nasty migrants." Of course I knew that could not be the case. And as I said on Tuesday, I eventually figured it out. But before asking you what you heard, I played the audio for a reader who thought she said "nasty muggers."  So with that, I figured...let's see what every else is hearing.

If you did not listen on Tuesday, go ahead and check it out now.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH

Everyone who wrote in, correctly heard that Harvey was talking about dealing with those "nasty migraines." 

MADISON GETS DIVERSITY JOB BACK

When Paula Madison came to take over KNBC, she was also the NBC V-P of Diversity. Then, in 2002,  just days after I wrote (quoting from the William McGowan  book "Coloring The News") that Madison was a former member of the Nation of Islam, she was removed from that position.  One KNBC insider told me that they thought my writing about it caused the loss of position. But  I could never be sure that my mentioning it had anything to do with it.  I can tell you that I did email NBC News President Andy Lack at the time about it. He didn't respond, but he most certainly was aware. I also remember KABC talk show host Larry Elder bringing it up. I am also told that another web site - FTV as I recall - also wrote about it at the time.

Now, comes this memo from NBC Universal CEO Bob Wright:

From: Bob Wright (NBC Universal)
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2006 9:18 AM
To: @NBC Universal All
Subject: Key Leadership and Organizational Announcement

I am pleased to announce that Paula Madison will add the role of Executive Vice President of Diversity for NBC Universal to her current responsibilities as President & General Manager of KNBC and Regional General Manager of KVEA and KWHY, our NBC/Telemundo television stations in Los Angeles.

Some of you may recall that Paula originally held this position for two years when it was first created in 2000.  Since then our company has grown considerably and now nearly half of our business activities are based on the West Coast.  Given NBC Universal's continued commitment to increasing diversity throughout the business, both in front of and behind the camera, Paula's current location in Los Angeles will be beneficial in driving these efforts.

Paula will work closely with our internal diversity champions, Alex McCauley, VP Employer of Choice and Tony Loney, Director Compliance & Diversity, and the NBCU Leadership Council.

I'd like to thank Michael Jack, President & General Manager of WRC, for the terrific job that he has done as our diversity leader since July 2002.  He has helped our company make tremendous strides in this area and will continue to serve on the Diversity Council and as an important delegate to the Washington DC area.
 
In our rapidly changing and expanding media landscape, it remains a priority to drive diversity in all aspects of our business.

Please join me in welcoming Paula to this very important role.

NEXT SCAN COMING

I always try to keep you up-to-date on my health situation. My next PET-CT scan will be on Tuesday. I'll get the results from my oncologist a week from Tuesday. Interestingly, he expects some of the cancer which we found during the last scan in April in my lymph system to remain. Again, as long as it stays confined to my lymph system, I'm not in serious danger. Though I can tell you that every scan that I've had while on chemo has come up clean. So that is why I was a little surprised that my doc expects some cancer to remain.

Psychologically, I think that may help.  If there is still some there, no reason to panic./ It was expected.  If it's gone again, which I think is quite possible, then obviously all the better.  So we'll see what happens.

LETTERS TO OTR

If you want a letter published, please be sure to include your first and last name.  Also, it helps me if you can  write "LETTERS" in the subject line. Thanks!

WHO ARE YOU?  

I invite all you to write in and tell your fellow readers a little about yourself. What you do for a living, why you are interested in TV news and anything else you'd like to include about yourself.  You can email to Bruin74@aol.com .